Monday's Menu:

Happy Monday everyone! Welcome back from the weekend. I hope it was a wonderful one for you all.

I'm sharing a recipe I made a couple of years ago that originated from Inspiralized.com and found it in my stack of recipes I've prepared in the past. This time I served it with roasted veggies and some dinner rolls that I shared in a previous post. All of the dishes are Paleo and the ingredients are Whole 30 approved. Double win!

I was so fortunate this particular evening to have the pleasure of cooking for my friend, Rachel, so I opted to make the extra sides and dinner rolls...then decided to whip her up a quick and easy Paleo baked apple crumble for dessert. I wasn't able to snap of picture of the dessert...she was a little too fast for me and since it was a random throw together kind of dessert on the fly, I also didn't measure what I was adding to it since I was making a serving for one. All in all, it was a fun evening and definitely makes cooking more worth the effort when you get to share it.

The ingredients shopping list looks overwhelming but I promise you it's not. I just kept it divided so you know which ingredients goes to each part of the meal. Preparing the meal is actually very easy once you peel and cut up the butternut squash. That takes the longest of any of it. However, I did notice you can now buy them pre-spiralized at Whole Foods for a 10000% markup. Choose wisely...effort vs spendthrift. If you opt for Whole Foods, you can order from Instacart (referral code rbrittain22) for delivery and man-oh-man does this come in handy sometimes!

2 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, butterflied and then cut in half

salt and pepper, to taste

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup chicken stock, low sodium

1/4 cup capers, rinsed

1/4 cup freshly chopped parsley

For the chicken breading:

3/4 cup almond meal

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano flakes

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

For the roasted cauliflower and onions

1/2 to 1 head cauliflower

1/2 purple onion, chopped

Truffle salt

1 tbsp olive oil (optional)

For the dinner rolls:

3/4 cup tapioca flour (or arrowroot flour)

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup and 4 tbsp olive oil

1 large, organic egg

1 tsp salt

I would say to begin the butternut squash preparations first and then set it aside to work on the roasted vegetables and dinner rolls.

Preheat the oven to 350* F. I set it at this temperature so that I can simultaneously bake the dinner rolls, roast the cauliflower and onions, and then add the butternut squash noodles to the oven at the end.

Cut the butternut squash at the end of the longest part, just as the bulb begins. You will be able to spiralize only what's above the bulb because it is solid. The bulb portion can be cleaned out from seeds (that you can clean and roast), and cut into chunks to use in a different meal.

Peel the top portion of the butternut squash that you're going to spiralize and place it onto the Spiralizer.

This ended up making 3-4 servings of noodles. It definitely provided four servings for Rachel and I, but three if you have a hearty eater or less sides perhaps.

Roasted Onions and Cauliflower: Once you prepped the noodles above, set them aside. Rinse the cauliflower and cut off the florets. Cut the purple onion in half and roughly chop it into bite size pieces. You can toss them in 1 tbsp olive oil if you'd like, or roast them try. Arrange them on a foil lined baking sheet and sprinkle with truffle salt to taste preference. Roast for 40-45 minutes at 350* F

Dinner Rolls: Mix together 3/4 cup tapioca (or arrowroot) flour, 1/2 cup coconut flour, and 1 tsp. salt. Then add 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup olive oil, and 1 egg. Mix this all together with a hand mixer. If the batter has too much liquid to roll the dough in your hands, then add a little more coconut flour. Roll the dough into approximately 8 balls using your hands and place them on a greased baking sheet or parchment paper lined sheet. I used a non-stick baking sheet and they baked perfectly without sticking.

Bake them at 350* F for 30-35 minutes until they begin turning golden brown on the bottom. The tapioca flour version took a little longer for the inside of the rolls to bake than the arrowroot version I previously made took. You'd have to cut into one to determine this, but it's worth it. And by the way, they're incredibly delicious!

Chicken piccata with butternut squash noodles: Because I didn't tweak this recipe at all to make a new version I am going to direct you to the Inspiralized.com recipe. I do not want to take any credit for this as I followed her recipe step by step.

10 minutes before the dinner rolls are finished baking, add the butternut squash noodles to the oven to let them roast, and then begin to prepare the chicken.

Once they chicken is finished, you can serve everything at once.

I hope you enjoyed this healthy dinner idea and share with someone who's eating healthy or needs some recipe ideas!

Wishing everyone a great week ahead. Please subscribe below if you haven't yet so that you do not miss out on future posts!